EXCLUSIVE:Dexter alumna Julie Benz will star opposite Grant Bowler Bowler in the Syfy series Defiance. Tony Curran (Pillars Of The Earth), Jaime Murray and Stephanie Leonidas also have been cast in the live-action drama, written/executive produced by Rockne S. O’Bannon, Kevin Murphy and Michael Taylor, which was developed concurrently with an online video game. Set on a future Earth, Defiance is set in a world where humans and aliens live together on a planet ravaged by decades of war and transformed by alien terra-forming machines. It centers on Jeb Nolan (Bowler), the law-keeper in a bustling frontier boomtown that is one of the new world’s few oasis of civility and inclusion. Benz, repped by ICM and Vincent Cirrincione, will play Amanda Rosewater, the idealistic newly appointed mayor of the mining boomtown who is determined to maintain peace in the community. Leonidas, repped by UK’s Artists Rights Group and Thruline, will play Irisa, a beautiful warrior who is part of an alien race called the Irathients. After Nolan killed her criminal father, he adopted the girl and raised her as his clever – and lethal – right-hand. Curran, repped by Domain and Sanders/Arstrong/Caserta, will play Datak Tarr, a member of another elite alien race known as the Castithans who schemed his way out of his home planet before it was destroyed. Murray, repped by Sanders/Arstrong/Caserta, will play Datak’s beautiful and proper wife. Scott Stewart (Legion) will direct Defiance, slated to begin production in April in Toronto. Kevin Murphy serves as showrunner. Benz just wrapped the indie Supremacy.

Shane McRae is the first actor cast in Syfy’s two-hour pilot Rewind,from BermanBraun and Universal Cable Prods. Written by Justin Marks and directed by Jack Bender, Rewind revolves around a team of military field operatives and civilian scientists who must use untested technology to travel back in time to alter past events in order to change the future and avoid a devastating terrorist attack. McRae, repped by Gersh and TMT Entertainment, will play Henry Knox, ex-Special Forces who now ranks as a field operative in a special division of the Department of Homeland Security. Rewind is also set to begin production in April.